Playing on The Precipice

Burlington music festival expands at new location

Jul. 25, 2013

Musicians Brett Hughes and Kat Wright perform during The Precipice press event held behind Burlington College on July 15. The Precipice festival will feature 70 acts, almost all of whom are Vermont musicians. / DAMIR ALISA/ FREE PRESS

Written by

Free Press Staff Writer

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The Precipice festival features 70 acts, almost all of whom are Vermont musicians, but also offers Vermont-made art and local food and drink from Duino Duende, The Hindquarter, Switchback and The Skinny Pancake. Performers will play from four stages scattered across the field behind Burlington College at the times listed below: Friday

Brett Hughes has been on the Burlington music scene for a long time, and the guitarist is also one of the city’s most ardent musical ambassadors.

“What I say about Burlington is we suffer from an embarrassment of riches, especially music. It’s deeper than any of us know,” said the veteran of bands including Chrome Cowboys and Belle Pines. “It thrills me and shocks me that there are so many creative and talented people here, especially for such a small community.”

Hughes was speaking last week in a field behind Burlington College, where a news conference announcing plans for The Precipice had just concluded. The Precipice is a festival that debuted last summer at the Intervale and moves this weekend to the field off North Avenue with 70 musical acts, almost all of whom call Vermont home.

“It’s really the only kind of full-on, locally-focused event that I can remember,” Hughes said of The Precipice. The Waking Windows festival that took place in Winooski in May comes close, Hughes said, but The Precipice is even more chock-full of local talent.

Hughes will play a couple of shows at The Precipice, including Sunday gigs with his band Monoprix and as a duo with Kat Wright, the singer with whom he performed two songs at last week’s news conference. They’ll be joined by Vermont acts including, on Friday, Swale, Barika and The Lynguistic Civilians; Saturday, Rough Francis, Ryan Power, Maryse Smith, The DuPont Brothers and Alpenglow; and Sunday, Vermont Joy Parade, Lendway and the Eames Brothers Band. Out-of-towners including the old-timey Massachusetts trio Rusty Belle and the super-group Superhuman Happiness (featuring members of Antibalas, TV on the Radio and Iron & Wine) are also on the bill.

The Precipice will also highlight local food and art on the college’s 32-acre campus that, until two years ago, was highly unlikely to host a weekend of adventurous music and art: The Roman Catholic Diocese of Burlington sold the building and grounds to Burlington College for $10 million in late 2010. College President Christine Plunkett said at the news conference for The Precipice that the festival is the start of a larger plan for additional public events on the campus that’s near the eastern shore of Lake Champlain.

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The Precipice is presented by Radio Bean, the coffee shop, music venue and creative hang-out spot on North Winooski Avenue. Last year’s event down by the farms at the Intervale drew about 600 people; Radio Bean owner Lee Anderson said this year’s festival has the capacity for 900 people each day Friday and Sunday and up to 2,000 on Saturday, when the Old North End community event The Ramble will conclude with a bike parade leading to The Precipice grounds.

“We want to fill this field with people,” said Joe Adler, Radio Bean’s general manager and a musician who will perform Friday with his group Rangers of Dangers. Anderson, who will appear in the wee hours of Sunday morning with the band Appalled Eagles, said last year’s Precipice was smaller than this year’s but also had that “you missed something” buzz that circulated around town.

“We had a magical time,” Anderson said, adding that he considered last year’s festival “a huge success.” The Precipice will go on even if it becomes “The Precipitous” and rains as it has for much of the spring and summer, according to Anderson, who said there will be tents for attendees to shelter themselves should the weather turn wet.

Adler echoed Hughes’ thought that The Precipice taps into Burlington’s status as a music haven. “A lot of us came to Burlington for the music,” said Adler, a native of the Washington, D.C., area. “I can’t imagine being anywhere else.”

The Precipice, though, is about more than the music, Adler said; it’s also about creating a sense of community. “The mission is just for people to get together and share in the music and share in the art and just be together,” he said.

The festival is certainly not about making money, according to Anderson. He opened Radio Bean in 2000 with the idea that it would be a place to foster creativity more than it would be a place for the owner to get rich.

“The purpose of this festival is not for profit,” Anderson said, paraphrasing a line he has used to describe Radio Bean and the adjacent eatery he runs, Duino Duende. “The purpose of this festival is the people motive, not the profit motive.”